Bubble Yum

Mmmm jellybeans

Apart from LCD Soundsystem, the DFA had been up to deceptively little of note until lately. Between 2002 and 2005, the label/production team released a steady stream of seminal 12-inches and albums, including, but not limited to "House of Jealous Lovers", "Losing My Edge", "Cone Toaster", "Yeah", their remix of Le Tigre's "Decepticon", Echoes, and DFA Compilation #2. Yet, despite their enduring prestige, a quick page through the DFA's discography of late reveals a pair of (admittedly excellent) vault-clearing remix compilations, Hot Chip's à chacun son goût new LP, Made in the Dark, and two fairly disappointing high-profile remixes (Justin Timberlake's "My Love" and M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes").

That's why it is extremely heartening that recent times have seen two DFA releases that go a long way towards resolving the label's burgeoning identity crisis. These are Hercules & Love Affair's self-titled debut and the latest 12-inch from The Juan MacLean, "Happy House". Both veer away from the krautrock, pathos, and irony trail blazed by the flagship act and find a warm, organic center; the pendulum swings back towards the "disco" and away from the "punk". H&LA, the nom de guerre of Brooklyn's Andy Butler, is the first DFA act to fully embrace Paradise Garage-era disco qua disco, resulting in a sound that Nick Sylvester accurately encapsulated as "straight-up gay." It alternates between rapturous house anthems and quasi torch songs, marrying early-oughts live-sounding (or possibly live) percussion and hand claps with the strongest vocal presence (again, discounting Mr. Murphy) on a DFA release since Luke Jenner tried to appropriate the top of Robert Smith's vocal range on those original Rapture singles. This is primarily thanks to the efforts of Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons) whose diva potential is fully realized here, as opposed to on My Robot Friend's restrained, under-orchestrated "One More Try"; his vocal performance nearly overpowers the excellent "Blind", which is no mean feat.

The Juan MacLean, a.k.a. John MacLean (formerly of Six Finger Satellite) is a DFA O.G. who constantly operated out of the (relative) limelight; in the beginning he rubbed shoulders with the considerably more fêted Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, and Black Dice. In 2005 he released his debut album Less Than Human which spawned a trio of excellent-yet-underheard tracks, "Give Me Every Little Thing", "Tito's Way", and "Love is in the Air". I don't know whether or not it would be appropriate to call MacLean the "housiest" member of the DFA stable; he's certainly the artist who hewed closest to dance music's existing template (whereas his better-known labelmates were more instrumental in expanding it). "Happy House", as the title suggests, fits squarely within this aesthetic: centered around a infectious piano figure and co-writer Nancy Whang's appropriately femme anonyme vocal, the 12+ minute track is concerned only with propulsion and hedonism, which here are conjoined pursuits. Todd L. Burns has a more thoughtful run down of the title track and its accompanying remixes over at Resident Advisor; one specific "Easter Egg surprise" I'd like to direct you to is the cowbell.

Hercules & Love Affair Myspace
The Juan MacLean Myspace